Lewis Warrington is the descendant of an old and respectable family in Williamsburgh, near Norfolk, in Virginia, where he was born on the 3d day of November, 1782. He finished the higher branches of his education at William and Mary College in that state. The habits of study which he acquired at that excellent institution, and the associations which he formed, have never forsaken him, but have continued to mark his character and augment his information, at intervals of leisure, amidst the toils and tumults, the hardships and privations of a naval life. In consequence of an unusually retentive memory, added to a strong attachment to books, his mind is amply enriched with general knowledge. Shortly after the completion of his studies at Williamsburgh, he received an appointment in the navy as midshipman, and entered the service in January, 1800. His first cruise was on board the Chesapeake, commanded by Captain Samuel Barron, to the West Indies. In 1801 he was removed to the frigate President, Captain Dale, on a cruise to the Mediterranean, but returned the following year. During the same year he returned again to the Mediterranean, as master’s mate in the frigate New York, under the command of Captain James Barron.

At Gibraltar he was transferred to the frigate Chesapeake, then on her return to the United States. In 1803 he again sailed in the schooner Vixen, Captain John Smith, to join the American squadron in the Mediterranean, where, actively participating in their exertions and dangers, he was justly entitled to share the glory attendant on the achievements of that band of heroes. Late in the year 1804 he was promoted to the rank of acting lieutenant, and on the termination of hostilities with the Tripolitans, was transferred, with Captain Smith, to the brig Syren, and in the succeeding year to the schooner Enterprise, Captain Porter, and returned to the United States in 1807. From that period until 1809 he was variously employed, always intent on his own improvement in the science of his profession. In March of that year he was appointed first lieutenant on board the brig Syren, Captain Charles Gordon, and ordered to sail to France with dispatches. In September, 1811, he was appointed first lieutenant in the brig Essex, under Captain Smith, who not long after was appointed to the command of the frigate Congress, and requested as a favor that Lieutenant Warrington might be permitted to accompany him. The request was complied with, and Warrington remained with his friend, Captain Smith, until March, 1813, when he was transferred as first lieutenant to the frigate United States, under the command of Commodore Decatur. In July of the same year, at the particular request of Decatur, he was promoted to the rank of master-commandant, and in the following month was appointed to the command of the sloop-of-war Peacock, the vessel in which his fortune conducted him to victory and to glory. The following is an extract of an official letter from Captain Warrington to the Secretary of the Navy, dated U. S. sloop Peacock, at sea, 29th April, 1814. He says, “We have this morning captured, after an action of forty-two minutes, his majesty’s brig Epervier, rating and mounting eighteen thirty-two pound carronades, with one hundred and twenty-eight men, of whom eight were killed and thirteen wounded. Among the latter is her first lieutenant, who has lost an arm and received a severe splinter wound on the hip. Not a man in the Peacock was killed, and only two wounded; neither dangerously so. The fate of the Epervier would have been determined in much less time, but for the circumstance of our foreyard being totally disabled by two round shot in the starboard quarter, from her first broadside, which entirely deprived us of the use of our fore and fore-top sails, and compelled us to keep the ship large throughout the remainder of the action. This, with a few topmast and top-gallant backstays cut away, a few shot through our sails, is the only injury the Peacock has sustained. Not a round shot touched our hull; our masts and spars are as sound as ever. When the enemy struck he had five feet water in his hold, his main-topmast was over the side, his main-boom shot away, his fore-mast cut nearly in two, and tottering; his fore-rigging and stays shot away, his bowsprit badly wounded and forty-five shot holes in his hull, twenty of which were within a foot of his water-line. By great exertion we got her in sailing order just as the dark came on. In fifteen minutes after the enemy struck, the Peacock was ready for another action, in every respect but her foreyard, which was sent down, fished, and had the foresail set again in forty-five minutes; such was the spirit and activity of our gallant crew. The Epervier had under her convoy an English brig, a Russian and a Spanish ship, which all hauled their wind and stood to the E. N. E. I had determined upon pursuing the former, but found that it would not answer to leave our prize in her then crippled state, and the more particularly so, as we found she had one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in specie, which we soon transferred to the Peacock.

“I have the honor, &c.

“L. Warrington.”

It is a fact, then, which no candid seaman will venture to deny, that, taking into consideration the nature of the action, one hundred and twenty-eight men—the complement of the Epervier when the conflict commenced—were capable of defending her, and annoying their enemy with as much effect as one hundred and forty-eight could have done—the complement in full of the crew of the Peacock. The gallant Warrington, therefore, achieved his victory with triumphant facility; not because he had thirty men and one fighting gun more than his enemy, but because he was himself superior to the British captain in skill, and his officers and crew superior to their opponents in firmness and gunnery.

Congress ordered a gold medal (see Plate XIII.) to be struck and presented to “Captain Lewis Warrington, of Virginia, commander of the sloop-of-war Peacock, for the capture of the British brig L’Epervier, Captain Wales, April 29th, 1814.”

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

Occasion.—Capture of the British brig L’Epervier.

Device.—Bust of Captain Warrington.

Legend.—Ludovicus Warrington dux navalis Amer.

Reverse.—Two ships engaged; the topmast of one shot off.

Legend.—Pro patria paratus aut vincere aut mori.

Exergue.—Inter Peacock nav. Ameri. et Epervier nav. Ang. die 29th March, 1814.